Is the above photo a recent one of Jean Schmidt?????

This discussion between Brad DeLong and John Harris is interesting.

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/…..vs_gr.html

I agree with other observers who say it’s all about page rank.

I found Froomkin for the first time when looking for a real breifing, sure, and (mis)typing “whitehouse briefing.”

It only took me a second to realize that this wasn’t the real briefing, but that I liked it. I imagine that the drum roll is coming from folks who made the same mistake, but DIDN’T like it.

I think the WaPo is crazy if they give up top page rank just because some other folks demand it. I mean geez, when you’ve got top google rank, you run with it.

Agh, I HATE to go to bed at night. I might have to switch to Pacific Standard time!

Dig that first comment by cinnamonape. I think the entire establishment media has a credibility problem; they fail to see their position from the perspective of the public or from that of the court as public informers. NOT WHITEHOUSE MOUTHPIECES.

cinnamonape is right to point back to the Appellate Court decision — but we, the public, should read that decision more carefully. Judge Tatel put one helluva lot of effort into documenting his concurrence. There’s surely a substantive reason for this. Perhaps a revisit of the decision is anticipated in the near future.

In any case, I especially dig this bit from Tatel (emphasis mine on my favorite bits):

IV.
I conclude, as I began, with the tensions at work in this
case. Here, two reporters and a news magazine, informants to
the public, seek to keep a grand jury uninformed. Representing
two equally fundamental principles—rule of law and free
speech—the special counsel and the reporters both aim to
facilitate fully informed and accurate decision-making by those
they serve: the grand jury and the electorate. To this court falls
the task of balancing the two sidesÂ’ concerns.

As James Madison explained, “[A] people who mean to be
their own Governors must arm themselves with the power which
knowledge gives.” See In re Lindsey, 148 F.3d 1100, 1109
(D.C. Cir. 1998) (quoting Letter from James Madison to W.T.
Barry (Aug. 4, 1822), in 9 The Writings of James Madison 103
(Gaillard Hunt ed., 1910)). Consistent with that maxim, “[a]
free press is indispensable to the workings of our democratic
society,” Associated Press v. United States, 326 U.S. 1, 28
(1945) (Frankfurter, J., concurring), and because confidential
sources are essential to the workings of the press—a practical
reality that virtually all states and the federal government now
acknowledge—I believe that “reason and experience” compel
recognition of a privilege for reportersÂ’ sources. That said,
because “[l]iberty can only be exercised in a system of law
which safeguards order,” Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 559, 574
(1965), the privilege must give way to imperatives of law
enforcement in exceptional cases.

Were the leak at issue in this case less harmful to national
security or more vital to public debate, or had the special
counsel failed to demonstrate the grand juryÂ’s need for the
reportersÂ’ evidence, I might have supported the motion to quash.
Because identifying appellantsÂ’ sources instead appears essential
to remedying a serious breach of public trust, I join in affirming
the district courtÂ’s orders compelling their testimony.

Yeah, baby. The establishment press continues to mess with both the public’s need for the truth; certain members are very nearly accessories to the crime or crimes. If obstruction continues by way of the press, if a deliberate breach of the public continues, there is a point at which the press will be unable to escape both prosecution and its own irrelevance.

Le press sont mort, vive le blog!

this guy is a fucking tool.

justwondering –

Ah, the DREGs sounds like a marvelous group. Not even necessary to know the meaning of the acronym — the name evokes a pleasant combination of the bohemian and the street-wise…

Thanks for your apocalyptic hospitality! When I met Mr. K8 (I took a job at the company where he worked) he was known throughout the place as the “Electro-Mechanical Whiz.” Got a special citation for building prototypes that wowed ‘em.

He’s saved us a ton of money by being able to repair just about anything. A genius in the spatial, geometric, right-brained universe.

Me? I’m the linguistically oriented one, analytic, very left-brained. Put the two of us together and we make one amazing brain. Each of us, alone, is terribly lop-sided. So we’ll arrive at base camp together, a complementary set — ready to help out!!!

Sounds like you had fun tonight. Good for you!

White Chocolate Wurmser?

Moose Munch Matalin?

Lemon Libby Sorbet?

Yummy, let’s eat ‘em all!

Sad news about Du upthread, condolences requested.

Heavenly Hadley.

Okay, now I must stop.

Oh, no, his is definitely Chunky Chimperor.

Rummy Raisin. Mmmmm.

Bubbleboys flavor might be Iraqi Road ?

The ‘holiday reception’ for the WH press pack is this week.

Cocktail wienies everywhere are trembling in their cellophane.

Zennurse, make that ice cream mint chocolate chip and I’m yours.

We should make Plame Gate indictment flavors. I want this next one to be Rocky Rove.

Or Vanillica Novak. Or Cheney Garcia.

Mint Chocolate Fitz, anyone?

Yep Bobby, not only did the NeoNutzi’s have to follow the PNAC Attack, things were getting way too hot over so many inconsistencies on what really happened on 9-11. Websites with slo-mo footage and tons of damning documentation were popping up faster and thicker than dandelions after a good spring rain. You bet Bush had to deflect and focus on Saddam for several reasons, then invade pronto. They make me sick.

Jake tells me that we are in the eye of the
Hurricane now—it’s quiet on the Fitz front
but soon all hell is going to break loose.
How are we all going to celebrate Rover’s
Frog March? Like Bastille Day in France?

In the meantime the MSM honchos are on
the prowl to bully the true patriots(bloggers) who deconstruct their suck ass reporting
It’s all part of their grand strategy but it is not
working. Ha Ha you goose stuffed bastards.

Bush and the mattresses. Like a Mafia Don
needing protection from the voice of the people. Always before buying a horse you
inspect the teeth. Bush’s teeth tell the history
of his abuse. The Jaw and the teeth. Soon
he will have a locked jaw from loosing his
“Brain.” I guess when you live in a bubble
you start eating ‘creamed foods’—you loose
the ability to chew and breakdown what comes
in. Is there any reporter left who can rile
the President and “lock their jaw into his side”
and not let go till they get some answers
Lets send straws to all these suck ass reporters. They have no teeth left. All they can
do is suck it up. Jake tells me to stop the rant.
He reminds me that the MSM are like
garbage collectors—-lots of good food in the
dumpster diving.

I know RawStory is to be taken with a pillar of salt, but, well, they really haven’t been proven wrong yet. All of their Hannah, Wurmser, Hadley, Ralston and Rove scoops may yet come to glorious fruition.

If they are right, who do you think the “at least one other White House official” is?

I’d say it had to be Hadley … sadly. I’d greatly prefer Bolton or Condi.

cinnamonape — very interesting comments re: Tatel et. al.

zennurse — so glad they turned out great! Good to hear, mine haven’t arrived yet.

There’s a poll released today showing 58% still don’t believe Bush has a plan. It seems that the moderate repubs are coming around.

prof -

I’m on the last of the Shiraz, and off to the sack forthwith, so it’ll have to wait.

—

From the Let’s Keep Our Eyes On The Prize Dept: What say ye, eminent FDL’ers?

Regarding GeeW’s latest speech and Q&A in Philly…

Ya gotta love the arrogance. Bush says even knowing what we know today, he’d still invade Iraq.

Right.

Had the Congress and the public known the truth in 2002-2003 Bush would NEVER have gotten the blank check unilateral authority he got.

I think he knew EXACTLY back then what we all now know — that Saddam was bluffing about WMD (in large measure — no surprise — to keep his grip on power). Consequently, Bush could not let the U.N. inspections run their course, or the lie would have been laid bare, neutering GeeW’s war Jones. Hence the precipitous rush to invade.

This “we ALL got it wrong” stuff is simply a bunch of crap. Gotta be.

‘eh?

—

Mrs. K8 our group (arocronym DREGs) met at the local tavern. Over the weekend, a couple of our friends had checked out a location for the off the grid compound. But it was a bit too much unlike paradise for our liking. Apparently, the local rednecks had recently tied a chain around the ATM machine at the nearest gas station and drove away with it. They then absconded to the mountains and emptied it out.

But the manhattans were great.

So we’re still looking.

And when we find just the right place we’ll be delighted to have you and Mr. K8, even if you have ravenous appetites.

As for Mr. K8, I adore useful men who can fix things, make additions to your house, etc.

Prof -

Well, yeah, you’re right. That’s how I first did it, but it didn’t look as good, so I inserted the space.

Well, since I was the originator of the “White House Post” moniker over on the Froomkin site, I decided that over here I could suggest a redesign.

Did you try it with “house” in lower case?

Prof

Agent Harris: Chief, would you believe my whole Froomkin is a commie, I’m a republican lap-dog routine is really a ruse to gauge public opinion to see if we should return to real, actual journalism.

Chief: [SILENCE]

Agent Harris: Would you believe……..

The comments tend to be on-topic and not 300+…

Hey, we’re workin’ on it!

:-]

Prof -

Well, yeah, you’re right. That’s how I first did it, but it didn’t look as good, so I inserted the space.

FDL’ers have SUCH high standards.

;)

—

Abolish the death penalty. It is sickening that GW has executed the most. About 150 I think of 1000.

I just did a pro bono re-design of the WaPo masthead:

http://www.bgladd.com/WaPo.jpg

BobbyG, could you squeeze together “White” and “House” into “WhiteHouse” or perhaps “Whitehouse” so it is one word, like “Washington”?

Thanks,

Prof

colleen military mom -

Yeah.

http://www.haloscan.com/commen…..62/#189936

I’mJustSayin’, y’dig?

I e-flamed the Guvernator, called him a Girlie Man for the chickenshit way he handled it.

—

Hi Bobby

Tookie Williams was executed today in Ca after being on death row for 25 years.

lofistew -

I now check in on Froomkin regularly. Dude rocks.

Harris is a fucking joke. The whiny WaPo editorial equivalent of renowned telemedicine neurologist Bill Frist.

—

I have to admit that until now I had never heard of Dan Froomkin. This whole “controversy,” though, has enlightened me.

Now that I’ve read his stuff, I can see what this is all about. According to Bushies and their bootlicks, facts and accountability are “liberal” positions. And if you don’t balance the facts with Republican spin/lies, then you are biased.

Thanks to the GOP and their apologists/enablers, I now have found a great new resource in Froomkin.

Everybody sing:

MERRY LITTLE FITZMAS

Have ourselves A Merry Little Fitzmas,
Make our nation right,
‘fore too long
The WHIGs will all be in plain sight.

Have ourselves A Merry Little Fitzmas,
Make those bastards pay.
From now on
Indictments will have made our day.

Once again, charges coming soon,
The Grand Jury’s tune
Will roar.
Rule of law once so dear to us
Gathers near to us
Once more.

Through the years
They all will be together,
If Club Fed allows.
We could hang them all from just the highest boughs.
But, have ourselves A Merry Little Fitzmas now.

—

Oh and please god may Condi rot in hell too

(a la bedtime prayers – “bless x and y”)

and Colin

and Rummy

and Wolfie

and Booby

and Richard Cohen

and Fux News

and Rush

and Karl

and Karen

and James Guckert

and Scooty

and Joe Lieberman

and all vichy dems

and the entire Bush family

and Tony Blair

and….

(clunk – zzzzzzzzzzzz)

zen nurse – my bumper sticker sez IMPEACH BUSH & CHENEY…short and to the point.
Welcome back Bobby G.

Bobby G put the link on the WaPo pages where the Froomkin commentary is going on. FWIW the raw story is saying that Fitzgerald is going to present evidence to the grand jury tomorrow and Rove is going down. And at least one other WH guy.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/….._1213.html

zennurse -

I been away also, took me hottie honey on “the booze cruise” (aptly named) to Ensenada for our 25th.

Nice to ’see’ y’all again.

FDL’ers RULE!

—

I forgot to mention how wicked stylin’ I am today in my firedoglake sweatshirt! They got the blue absolutely perfect. I also love my canvas bags which are great for Fitzmas shopping!

Beautiful work, although I still want bumperstickers.

Bobby, that’s nice work indeed!

I had been off the ice cream for a week or two, but this week the craving is back. Chocolate chocolate chip, a little more complex than my usual coffee or plain chocolate; could this mean that it’s time to warm up the TV and prepare for a press conference? My taste buds say yes, but my heart says, “Only if you’re ready, Patrick.” I want these charges to stick like Gorilla Glue and I want Rove to see prison. I cannot imagine a jury believing this cockamamie story about forgetfulness and surprise e-mails, it’s just too transparent and silly.

As for Harris, I posted twice under Froomkin’s post and under my real name under Mr. Propaganda’s response. I saw one comment supporting him, but it was weak, as though he felt obligated because he was a Republican. It is, IMO, incredibly arrogant (but unsurprising) that he did not issue another statement or post again today in response to all those readers’ outrage.

I noticed today and late yesterday that we have many new “faces” commenting here @ FDL and I wonder if some of these folk have moved from lurkers to typists because of the increasing level of outrage at the MSM, the Rove lies and spin, the growing scandal with Delay/Abramoff/Scanlon, Diebold news and the administrations …. well everything the administration does, actually. I’m glad to see it and have enjoyed the comments; lovely intelligent courteous comments that we love here at firedoglake. But I think these scandals are starting to have an impact. It’s the 13th, and folks will be getting thier heating bills for November. It is 12 degrees where I live and snow is coming. It will be interesting to see where we are when those bills arrive in January, yes?

the ladies are truly on fire with this and I have voted at HuffPo for Jane’s piece. If anyone has the link to those web awards, could you post it, I can’t remember the name to google it.

Thanks.

z

Off-Topic…

Tookie WHO?

I’mJustSayin’

—

Pauvre USA, pauvre realness & goodness, pauvre humanity, pauvre Iraqis

Goodnight excellent people and may dick cheney rot in his undisclosed hell, and evil chimp also

Your point is quite clear, Jane.

These so called “journalists” don’t even seem to bother with reading the Court decisions that nearly sent one of their newsroom colleagues to the slammer (and DID send that fellow traveller Judy Miller away for almost two months).

They still seem intent on suckling at the teat of the White House sows that got them into this jam in the first place.

The fact is the Appellate Court justices intently discussed the HARM to NATIONAL SECURITY that the leaks constituted. They were privileged to examine the CLASSIFIED Ex Parte documents that Fitzgerald supplied them. And their comments within their decisions reveal much of what we want to know about Plame’s covert status.

Two justices reveal that the IAEA is very relevant to the case at hand, one stating that the Justice Department’s investigation was, in part, predicated on an apparent violation of that law. Throughout the decisions they refer to Fitzgerald’s investigation as being about the “alleged outing of a covert agent” (not the careful phrasing…NOT the “outing of an alleged covert agent”). The justices did not even hint that the need for the reporters testimony was about catching other witnesses in perjury.

Simply do a word search on such words as “covert”, “classified”, “harm”, “nuclear”, “intelligence”, “whistleblower”.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=c….._15_05.pdf

I also particularly enjoyed Justice Tatel’s admonishment of Cooper for being such a tool of the CRIMINAL leakers. He suggests that there was indeed, from his review of the classified material, a conspiracy to denigrate Wilson’s reputation by outing Plame.

Lastly…all three Appellate Court Justice’s prophetically note the exception to the “lawyer-client” privacy privilege. And that’s when the client is, or has, with the knowledge of the attorney perjured themselves before a Court. Thus Lushkin cannot keep his conversation with Rove immune if he discussed with him Vivica Novak’s information.

Shez Thanks for the info on linking.

BobbyG I too loved your WP graphic.

pseudonymous in nc -

Yep. Explains a lot, ‘eh? Don’t wanna get crossed off the invite list.

—

The ‘holiday reception’ for the WH press pack is this week.

Just sayin’.

Shez -

Yeah, good one. Utterly do-able. LOL.

—

Wonderer -

Some of my stuff is sarcastic/funny.

http://www.bgladd.com/Bush_Mal…..ign_ad.jpg

Some is not funny (Caution, those of you with children. Ugly):

http://www.bgladd.com/Bush_Mal….._child.jpg

I am one pissed off Irishman.

http://www.bgladd.com/War_President

—

I have increasing fondness for the title “Former Governor of Texas”

I tried, during the death-throes of the American Republic (i.e. JuntaBoy’s first — court-appointed — term), to popularize ForGoT instead of POTUS.

Never caught on…

Ohhh good one Bobby, can you do another one that says:
“The WhoreHouse Post” ?

Or maybe:
The Washington Outhouse Post

*grinz*

BobbyG…’Flush Twice’……I wish I knew the sms language for ’spitting coffee through my teeth and all over the keyboard while I attempt not to wet my pants’….. Please keep up the graphic commentary!

Bloggers get the commenters they deserve.

ROFL Frank, loved your WaPo -ahem- ‘template’. We could make a contest out of that to fill in the blank:

“A senior Administration official, who requested anonymity in order to avoid being branded a lying Whitehouse cocksucker, says everything is fine. Nothing to see here. Look over there!”

Wonderer -

Thanks. I live to serve.

Some of last year’s work:

http://www.bgladd.com/Bush_Mal…..e_Rice.jpg

or

http://www.bgladd.com/Bush_Mal….._TWICE.jpg

—

BobbyG, pro bono graphics love to u…..hee hee, you rock.

I don’t know how you two do this stuff but you have become without a doubt the best blog on the nets in an incredibly short time.

AGREE!!!! IMHO, they key is:

*This is not an endless string of “open threads”

*The blog postings are consistently rich in content

*Reddhead, jane and crew are consistently thoughtful but not arrogent know-it-alls

*Blog postings always have something to say

*The comments tend to be on-topic and not 300+ threads of insults

*There is not a lot of “troll baiting”

*People share ideas for some action and the “moderators” don’t make excuses like the ALL BLOG NO ACTION crowd that dominates “so-called-liberal” supeblogs

If I want rants and insults, I will look elsewhere. When I want ideas and information, I would come here. THANKS!

I just did a pro bono re-design of the WaPo masthead:

http://www.bgladd.com/WaPo.jpg

‘eh?

—

WASHINGTON – A Texas prosecutor has issued subpoenas for bank records and other information of a defense contractor involved in the bribery case of a California congressman as part of the investigation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

ADVERTISEMENT

District Attorney Ronnie Earle issued subpoenas late Monday afternoon for California businessmen Brent Wilkes and Max Gelwix, records of Perfect Wave Technologies LLC, Wilkes Corp. and ADCS Inc. in connection with a contribution to a fundraising committee at the center of the investigation that led to DeLay’s indictment on money laundering charges.

Perfect Wave contributed $15,000 in September 20, 2002 to Texans for a Republican Majority, a fundraising committee founded by DeLay, R-Texas.

Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham resigned in late November after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to companies.

BREAKING: FITZGERALD IS MEETING WITH THE GRAND JURY TOMORROW. FITZ WILL PRESENT EVIDENCE THAT COULD LEAD TO ROVE INDICTMENT ACCORDING TO RAWSTORY

Curious– it’s easy to link:

Copy and paste the entire URL of the story you want to link into here, haloscan will auto shorten it when you hit “Publish” and make it ‘active’. You get this:

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/13/205946/53

To put a title or words in an active link takes some quick HTML code:

[a href=”http://URLhere.com”]TITLE or TEXT here[/a]

Replace the brackets above with < and > arrows to make it working HTML, and remember to put your entire URL in quotation marks. Voila! It will look like this:

John Hannah Implicates Rove and Others! Fitzgerald Intends To Indict Rove Reports Raw Story

(Note: You can hit ‘Preview’ first to see if it works, before you hit “Publish”)

Hey, wait a sec. I missed a key part of this story. Was anyone else surprised to find out that the WaPo has editors on its staff? When they’re done taking marching orders from the White House, maybe one of them will tell Bob Woodward to write a “What I Told Fitzgerald” piece. That would be allowed, right? I remember reading somewhere that editors are reporters’ bosses.

Apologies about the heads up about Kos link didn’t realise it had been mentioned before. Must have missed that. So many comments and so little time!

Froomkin rarely reports anything- mostly he just quotes and comments from other sources it seems.

I’m waiting for specific examples of anything inaccurate that Froomkin has published. As far as I can tell, his reporting is just different from the typical WaPo template: “A senior Administration official, who requested anonymity in order to avoid being branded a bald-faced liar, says everything is fine. Nothing to see here. Look over there!”

“WASHINGTON — The world has shirked its duty to help prosecute Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.

“The international community’s effective boycott of Saddam’s trial is only harming the Iraqi people, who are now working to secure the hope of justice and freedom that Saddam long denied them,” Rice said.

The top U.S. diplomat also predicted that the Iraqi elections this week would yield the most democratic government “in the entire Middle East.” She did not mention the long-standing democracy in Israel”

So now the Clusterfuck administration is attacking the whole fuckin world—nice job for a diplomat!

Steve | 12.13.05 – 8:17 pm

I found it pretty amazing, in the age of the paid trolls and GOP spin, that the commenters on the Froomkin and Harris posts/ threads were so uniformly, yet so individually, bashing Harris, and so pro- Froomkin. Loved reading the comments, myself.
-

Thanks Cliff. I had forgotten about Palast.

Reid and Durbin are asking for an update on Phase II.

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTer…..5042-1536r

Why does that update need to be in a closed session? I guess it would give them the freedom to talk about classified information. But I thought the Phase II investigation was about the handling and use of classified information by the administration.

“Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will present additional evidence to a grand jury Wednesday morning in the CIA leak case that could result in an indictment being handed up against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, sources close to the investigation told RAW STORY.

Although the grand juryÂ’s term expires in 18 months, Fitzgerald is expected to wrap up the case as it relates to Rove before the end of the year, the sources said. “

From the Raw Story article.

Off topic, but the CEO of Diebold resigned earlier due to controversy surrounding the electronic voting scandal during the 2004 election. Check this slashdot snip for more links.

tryggth,

Here’s a couple of fave sites…

http://www.gregpalast.com/

http://copvcia.com/

I’ve just gotten so used to seeing indictments on Friday.

After spending the last 45 minutes reading Froomkin and Harris messages on the WP blogs I’ve come to the conclusion that the title “White House Briefing” should be changed to simply “Froomkin.”

He has too much talent to waste all of it on the WH. Let’s broaden his charter and let him also go after Congress. He could have a field day with some of the corruption taking place there.

Think about it….”White House Briefing” doesn’t do much. Now if we say a person has been Froomkined everyone will immediately understand.

Yes… Fitz and Froomkin!

David Corn, that self-absorbed writer, on DavidCorn.com, writes about Viveca Novak, post-TIME magazine. Not a single word of mea culpa for his bad reporting. No sorries for calling her a “kickass” reporter (which of course she never was), or for his arrogant upbraiding of readers who questioned his ethics. You’d think he never knew her, and that he didn’t drown in his previous gushings about her.

You’re an ass, David Corn.

rwcole
Yesss!! I have heard rumors. Tomorrow or next wed.

That Kos diary is just a summary of the earlier Raw Story bit plus a bit from Arianna’s article today.

Odd late night headline for Raw Story- since the Fitz and the GJ story have been being reported all day- maybe they have a new wrinkle– like Fitz is showin up with his microsoft indictment software.

terri

Brad Freidman on Bradblog is absolutely the best on election fraud. You will also find good links.
He has updates daily.

Have you read WAPO’s “The Fix”? I’d describe this column as an anthology of political news with a right wing bent. Since the author does commentary too, it’s erroneously in the news section of the paper: it should be in the opinion section along side Froomkin.

Raw Story has an article up (or about to be up) about Fitz going back to the jury tomorrow…..

Hersch doesn’t write enough. :-) Hersch has touted Haaretz, if I’m remembering correctly. Warren Strobel appears to be a straight shooter – wonder who is going to buy Knight-Ridder? The Guardian seems to break stuff regularly. Hmmm… who else?

Jane or Reddhead

I don’t know how to link but there is some info about plamegate over at Kos. Right hand side of page.

I think both Harris AND Downie need a little tough love from the internets.

Both seem to think their stature is defined by tearing others down rather than by performing competent work.

“Yer doin’ a heck of a job, Downie.”

rwcole – Karen Hughes- retired tight end for the Dallas Cowboys-

—–

lol…and that was back in the days the Cowboys were REALLY good

try—I think that Hirsh is the last living journalist- wait Gene Lyons is also a journalist… After that- you get down to shit pushers.

harrisj@washpost.com

Terri-
It aint Fitz but..
Securities Fraud Class Action Against Diebold Inc.

Thanks for asking Terri. Here is a pandora’s box of Diebold internal memos, white papers, white washes etc.

This should be some additional food for outrage for those who are already worked up over the issue.

That would be just about anyone who used a Diebold voting machine.

OK, US MSM is broken.

So, other than blogs, what other outlets are worthwhile? I occasionally read http://www.atimes.com.

Where should I look for good journalism?

Ordered “Triumph of the Will” from NetFlix–gonna watch it tonight- let’s see how Rove and Co. measure up to the real goopers.

I was just looking at some of the messages on the Harris blog and noticed one message that stated that it was Froomkin who first started asking who is this Jeff Gannon that is throwing all the softballs at the WH briefings.

Can anyone verify this? If true it is just amazing that the reporters didn’t notice this, but Froomkin did. Definitely time for a housecleaning at the WP!

Coming this Thursday…

11 a.m.: Post Politics Hour
Each weekday morning, a member of The Washington Post’s national political staff takes your questions about political topics of the day and The Post’s political coverage. Today: John
F. Harris

Maybe as an experiment, it might be interesting to really make an example of a Pressititte like Harris.

See if the leading blogs can have him lose his job.

Just keep hammering him til he folds.

I mean it. Just a test of blog power. Might work, might not, but I’ll bet he and his pitiful prejudices will be truly damaged either way.

We need someone with the morals and thoroughness of Fitzgerald to look into the electronic voting machines. That would be my one Christmas wish.
Why aren’t the democrats raising hell about that? Are they waiting for their own turn at throwing the elections their way?

Let me see if I understand this:

Newspapers are losing revenue in their print editions and so are hoping to make it up via advertising on web sites. So, the New Yawk Times has put its most popular and best columnists behind a subscription wall, possibly reducing the number of hits on its web page.

And the WaPo is threatening its most popular political columnist, whose column may account for a substantial number of its web page hits.

What part of basic business management don’t those people understand?

Karen Hughes- retired tight end for the Dallas Cowboys- was on Tweety tonight- selling the light and beauty of the Iraq war and the glorious president who made it possible–kept hopin she’d swallow her forked tongue- but it didn’t happen..

Tweety actually tried to ask some tough questions- which she artfully ignored- and Tweety couldn’t bring himself to make her answer em— she used to avoid tacklers well while a Cowboy.

Jay –

Good question, laid out carefully and precisely.

My money is on “C.”

The whole ‘respect for the office of the President” thing throws people off.
I have increasing fondness for the title “Former Governor of Texas”
More accurate and less confusing.

What was the actual degree of intelligence damage by the disclosure of Plame-Wilson’s name, and what was the specific crime?
Joe Wilson’s own activities — publishing op-eds etc. — were not exactly calculated to maintaining secrecy about himself and his family.

Is there special training that people receive where they learn how to abuse reason like that? It’s hard for me to imagine that it comes naturally. Let’s see:

1) Joe Wilson’s existence was not a secret, and revealing it was not illegal and did not endanger national security.

2) The existence of Joe Wilson’s family was not a secret, and revealing it was not illegal and did not endanger national security.

3) Joe Wilson did not mention his family in his op-ed.

4) It was not the revelation of Valerie Plame Wilson’s name that did damage, but rather the revelation of her identity — as the law states — as a CIA operative.

Is it that John Harris

a) is so ignorant that he doesn’t know all this?

b) is so retarded that he can’t keep all this or its significance in his head?

c) is so corrupt that he would knowingly misrepresent the issues?

d) or some combination of all three?

jEs:

symbiosis is the word for it, alright. and i hope you are right about Fitzgerald, too. i live in chicago and haven’t seem him miss yet. the day i heard he was in charge of the Plame investigation was the first day i had some hope for justice while this administration was in power. if there’s anything to be gotten and anyway to get it… he will.

Mrs. K8 – I write them regularly, and of late have been adding pretty much that!

Larry – IMO Jane even at her most ferocious is a sweet lil’ fuzzy lap-kitten in light of what these media enablers of mass murdering, freedom-destroying facsisti deserve…

justwondering –

That’s a great idea! Good luck!

Um, can we come stay at your place for Armageddon? Mr. K8 is quite handy indeed. And I don’t eat much.

Gotta go meet with my real estate group – looking to buy our off the grid compound in case the neo-facists manage to retain their power grab.

Not that I doubt the ultimate power of good over evil, Mrs. K8. It’s just cheap insurance – and probably just a lovely remote camping spot if everything goes as it should.

Alternatively it’s a base camp for the battle of good over evil.

Add John Harris to the seemingly endless list of shills for the corrupt shit-pile that is the Rethuglican Party.

All of whom, I have a deep, abiding urge to strangle with my fucking bare hands.

Jeez, this guy doesn’t even TRY to look even-handed…”If the Repubs don’t like it, it must be minimized or negated, becasue that is just SO not right.”

Fucking goddamned useless tool.

With my bare hands, I tell you.

When I saw Brian Williams on the Daily Show post-Katrina, I actually had hope for the hithero vacuous Chimp-fellator, now angry as hell. Obviously Rove sent Furio out to break his wife’s and children’s kneecaps. Oh well.

Gravatar puzzled — yeah I heard that too, they were all Murtha supporters
jane hamsher

——

they’re were probably the Joint Chiefs of Staff :)

Sharkbabe –

Maybe you could send each of them a nice “holiday” card with a handwritten note of how much you appreciate them, and how sorry you are that they have to work for the corporate whores to pay the bills.

or maybe he’s not pissed at all…i dont’ know :)

says the President to himself

“goddamnit, Laura gets Norah ODonnell and i get Brian Williams and bunch of mattresses!”

Jane, I apologize. I was beginning to think you were being too mean. This Harris episode proves I’m wrong.

they have nothing left to lose that i can tell.

Do you know what the tuition at Sidwell Friends School is? What a Cape May cottage — never mind the Vineyard — goes for in August?
davis x. machinaDavis X. Machina | Homepage | 12.13.05 – 6:28 pm | #

Access to Self-Importance.
meta | 12.13.05 – 6:38 pm | #

ooops, my naivete was showing. you are both right, of course. i was thinking they had nothing left to lose… professionally speaking. i didn’t consider keeping egos and lifestyles afloat.

sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a bottom.

Oh fuck. Mr. K8 says sometimes large outfits have faxes go straight to the computer.

Anybody know what kind of setup WaPo has?

I just keep thinking how glorious it would be for them to have to look through mountains and mountains of pages.

Reminds me of the scene in Miracle on 34th Street when the post office brings in all the mail for St. Nick.

i can hear it now

“Mr. President, the guards out front are calling…Mr. Williams is here with his mattresses.”

what’s really alarming is that the MSM goes to interviews with GW armed with mattresses!

Brian Williams should have the sense to understand that if the GW gang is willing to let him interview the big cheese, it’s because BW is perceived as absolute nonthreat of being able to accomplish anything of substance…such as being able to follow up anything….

good god, are these guys clueless, or what?

Somebody asked “what else can we do”?

Here’s a thought. You saw how many reponses they got at WaPo, and are still getting.

What if we got their fax numbers? How long and how many faxes does it take to use up all their fax paper and toner?

puzzled — yeah I heard that too, they were all Murtha supporters

rw…that’s the way i heard it…GW gone to the mattresses and the MSM throwing them down for him…if that’s not a metaphor i’ve never seen one…

oh yeah…the spaces between GW’s teeth…they’ve been ground down to make it easier for the lies to get out :)

Yeah Mrs. K, and I will. But the Post doesn’t deserve them. After all, Len Downie clearly thinks the likes of Booby is Elvis and the Beatles and Mark Twain and Jesus. The Post probably pays Richard CoWhore five times what they pay any of their actual interesting writers and critics.

Harris does look like a loser. Froomkin looks like something else. Oy.

puzzled–yep

And Brian was proud of it –he did say that it was tough to “follow up” on Clusterfuck’s non answers to his questions..Tweety was basically telling him that his interviews sucked—in a nice way.

OT–Arnold’s home country of Austria is wanting to change the names of buildings, etc. named for him since he refused to stay the execution of Tookie Williams….Hooray for Austria on that count!!!

“I think access is only part of the reason these guys are such Bushco fellators. “

Excellent observation. It all comes down to what they like to call “class” and what I like to call “greed.”

To say that there’s a “class war,” is to suggest that Bushco and supporters are of a higher class, or that they have any class at all. That’s so, so wrong. Bushco and “class” should never appear in the same sentence, unless the word “class” is preceded by “no,” or followed by “less. “

rwcole” Keep seeing Brian Williams–”Full day with nose up President’s Asshole” production

—–

the March of the Clueless in the MSM continues.

did i hear correctly…that they had to put mattresses on the floor and across the windows to drown out the jeers of some assembled crowd of GW-naysayers, elst the jeers would have been audible in the ‘yas’m massah President’ interview????

Yes, this Brian Williams nonsense is disgusting. Thought he had a road to Damascus experience during Katrina. What’s the matter? He finds it easy to forget the dead and the suffering?

This is off-topic, but it looks like Luskin is sticking to his story that the Vinova conversation occurred in February, and I’d submit the logical explanation is that he’s looking to save himself. Maybe Rove held out on him, too, but Luskin seems to be saying, “I told him then,” in regard to information that might have refreshed Karl’s recollection and reminded him of the Cooper conversation–inculpatory information Luskin had an ethical duty to reveal to his client–at about the time Karl falsely testified. Wow.
Don’t look over here, Fitz, I’m clean.

Jane, I just read your wonderful, marvelous piece about Bimbo Journalism in Yahoo!!!! You go girl.

FDL’ers.. If you have Yahoo go over and read this story. And then rate it and maybe even E-mail it to yourself. Right now it has a 4 star rating… while good that is not nearly as good as it should be.

What ever we can do, we should do. Keep that story rated high and on the front page for a while.

Now, I need to go read comments. I’ve been shopping.

It seems the gj will meet tomorrow, but this investigation is on Fitzy time, not our time. Keep telling yourself the anticipation will make the delivery (of indictments) that much sweeter. 8)

And John Harris can kiss my big ol’ behind! I love Froomkin’s column and will keep reading it.
**WARNING**
He may be gone for a brief while, but Froomkin will return!
Finally, and I’ve been wrestling with how to break this to my regular readers, but … my wife and I are expecting our first child within the next several weeks, and I will be taking a few weeks off when that happens. So brace yourself.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01495.html

Kay? Don’t freak or nuttin. More Froomkins in the world is a good thing.

Keep seeing Brian Williams–”Full day with nose up President’s Asshole” production.

Did anyone else notice how odd Clusterfuck’s teeth are? Small- with large spaces between..Sign of some disease maybe- but can’t remember which one.

What do I do about two really great things I like about WaPo – Tim Page the music writer and Michael Dirda in the Sunday book section.

Go to the library and read it?

I think access is only part of the reason these guys are such Bushco fellators. A big part, to be sure. But as Digby has pointed out, not many of them played that game with the Clenis. Certainly not John Harris.

I don’t know about Mr. Harris’s background but folks like Woodward are the folks that went to school with the Bushes and their natural constitutency. To them, the Clenis was always a white trash pretender, someone who would not bring credit to their town and their institutions. Never mind that Worst President Ever has done far incalcuable damage to our republic, he’s okay.

isis2-
Seems to me that the symbiosis between the Media and this WH is so complete that if you prick one, the other bleeds.
Fitzgerald, in sticking it to the WH threatens to expose the entire corrupt enterprise.

What do I do about two really great things I like about WaPo – Tim Page the music writer and Michael Dirda in the Sunday book section. Their wonderfulness and beauty and writerly brilliance makes me as happy as the rest of the despicable rag makes me put my fist through the wall.

Oh well it’s only the several-weeks-free-offer thing my girlfriend took up.

When Katharine Graham died, I thought the hoopla was a bit much. Sure she was an impressive woman, but I thought it was just the Beltway glorifying themselves by deifying one of their own. But seeing the way the Post has gone down hill in the past few years–I’ve read that her son is much more a repub than she was–I’m wondering if I didn’t misunderestimate her.
I’m also disappointed in Harris. He always struck me as one of the better ones, but he’s shown himself to be a tool of the RNC, and just a tool in general in this matter.
Keep us posted on whether he addresses the question of Ruffino (sp?); did Harris know he was a BC’04 bigwig? And if not, why the hell not?

No, it was Lou Dobbs.

Why doesn’t Lou have a nickname?

re: email campaigns

Posts are still coming hot and fast to Harris: http://blogs.washingtonpost.co…..s_res.html and Froomkin: http://blogs.washingtonpost.co…..e_bri.html

There are hundreds of comments, so I didn’t read them all, but I read many of them. Seem to be less than 0.005% pro Harris. The rest voice some form of outrage pro-Froomkin, anti-Harris. If this keeps up, *someone* in the MSM (Olbermann?) will be tempted to cover this firestorm. If you want to weigh in, go to links above.

oops–norske–it came out a bit wrong. I loved it, what you wrote and how you wrote it, not, um, well…It’s an odd feeling, truly, have one’s opinion or concern treated seriously. thank you…

Who was that guy from the NYTimes on Tweety tonight whining that young people don’t read newspapers anymore?

I like that line by E.L. Doctorow:

“Everything in the newspapers is true except for stories about which you have personal knowlege.”

(Approximate quote)

Fuck those assholes.

Jane – very nice dissection. It fits in perfectly with Downie’’s quote from your previous piece:

“We want to make sure people in the [Bush] administration know that our news coverage by White House reporters is separate from what appears in Froomkin’s column because it contains opinion”

Yeah, as if their so-called “news” reporting isn’t completely loaded with opinion!

For God’s sake Wapo, please get a grip on the difference between reporting the facts and influencing perception, as your masters order.

I can understand why we might sometimes have to rely on an anonymous source for FACTS, but reporting the OPINION of an anonymous source is on the level of Pravda, and utterly offensive.

For example, an anonymous source calls Fitzgerald “overzealous.” Puh- leeeze Wapo. That is doing indirectly what you’re allegedly not doing directly – expressing opinion! Not only that, it’s party line opinion.

Wapo, when you shake your bad habit and can want to stop presstituting yourself, let me know. At that point, if you appear on my doorstep, I’ll take you in. But until you see you have a serious problem, don’t expect any support from me.

Sick sick sick

The fuck SICK

Gods!

Mommy make it stop!

This doesn’t seem to be much different than what we’re seeing on K-Street. Access for a price. Journalists are just a cheaper date.

Isis2,

Access to Self-Importance.

Jim– Yeah- they met last wednesday and will meet tomorrow- wednesday seems to be the day..

The hardball guests seem to think that it’s too early in the process for indictments- and perhaps they are right–but it sure seems to be headed that way.

At the end of tonight’s show, Tweety said that Fitz was meeting with the GJ again tomorrow. Has this been reported elsewhere as fact, or was he just speculating?

Dammit, I like reading a morning paper. I’ve canceled the Times, the Sun, and now the Post.

That leaves The Onion.

what is wrong with you people . . .

FITZZZZZZZZZ

greg — I wish I could take credit for the cocktail weenies line, but alas I am just a popularizer. The author of the original line is James Wolcott, referring to the fact that Bob Woodward was too busy with Christmas parties to do the work that Seymour Herch does: “Those cocktail wieners don’t eat themselves, you know.”

Brilliant.

Does anybody have any figures of how many
hits Froomkin gets on the website of the
WashPo.com. Also how what are the figures
on the number of visits logged on to FDL,
Digby, Crooks and Liars, Wolcott, Common
Dreams, etc daily. Like to have a guage as to
the reach of the blogs as of now. Is it posted
anywhere on the web?

they have nothing left to lose that i can tell.

I beg to differ. Do you know what the tuition at Sidwell Friends School is? What a Cape May cottage — never mind the Vineyard — goes for in August?

Could you make that nut covering six-car pileups on the Wilson Bridge? I don’t think so….

Redd and Jane, I don’t know how you two do this stuff but you have become without a doubt the best blog on the nets in an incredibly short time.

By the by, I can’t recall who first used the cocktail weinies line everyone has been using as short hand for these issues of the press being in bed with the administration. Was it here?

Greg

Jane,

Great post , as always, I too think that we need to do a bit of pro-active stuff, like pumpin up Froomkin’s numbers and an e-mail
campaign to his site.

ME where are ya…got any ideas?

In the 90s, the WaPo dedicated teams of crack reporters to charting the incremental movements of Clinton’s jock. Now they whine about their need to play White House lapdog for the purpose of maintaining “access.”

access to what exactly? access to empty spin, at best? access to ‘no statement’ statements?

i don’t get it. i just don’t. what do they have to lose by committing journalism? they have nothing left to lose that i can tell.

what is wrong with you people . . .

FITZZZZZZZZZ

Like said, Harris got his instructions at a cocktail party.

This is really starting to piss me off.

I’m surprised he didn’t use Wolcott’s phrase “that showboating prick Joe Wilson.” Sounds like that’s what he was thinking. Tsk.

As others have said, subscriptions need to be canceled. They are deaf to anything else.